Warriors at Clippers pregame: Doc Rivers says Warriors can win the West

Clippers head coach Doc Rivers didn’t quite go all-in with the common college football practice of over-hyping every opponent, but he came pretty close in his pregame comments about the Warriors on Thursday.

He started by saying that he agreed with Warriors head coach Mark Jackson in his opinion that Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are the greatest shooting backcourt of all time. Then, he went on to praise to the way the team plays together and consistently makes the right passes.

“They’re a fun team to watch,” Rivers said, “but we have to play against them.”

When asked if the Warriors can win the Western Conference this season, Rivers didn’t hesitate. In fact, he said they could have won it last season.

“If David Lee was healthy, who knows?” Rivers said. … “This is a team that we have to catch, in my opinion.”

The Warriors did beat the Clippers in three of the teams’ four meetings last season, but the Clippers won the Pacific Division by nine games. Jackson said, “Doc said they had to catch us? … He was (coaching) in the East. What does he know?”